Wherein the world turns upside down, and rather likes it.

If you'd asked me on New Year's Eve 1999 (a day that I'm not sure I remember, for some reason) what things I would most definitely not be doing on New Year's Eve 2009, I am sure that the following would be among them:

1. Going to see a Disney movie in the theater.

2. Drinking a tumbler full of gasoline, mixed with broken glass and scorpions.

3. Getting a tattoo of Venezuela on my eyelid.

4. Making mashed potatoes.

5. Eating an Ohio State cake from the grocery store.

However, I will be doing most, if not all, of the above today. Okay, three out of the five. What other way to ring in a new decade (yeah, yeah) and flush the old one down the toilet for good? Of course there will also be all the other components of a good New Year's Eve, but I'm a little tickled at what I would never have done in the past.

I started the day by being the first on the block to have a fully cleared and awesomely shoveled driveway (and sidewalk! I may be among the dog walkers again some time in the not so distant future). In a few minutes we're going out to play in the snow. It's one of those winter days where you could really go out there with just a heavy sweater and mittens (and pants, of course).

I know I should be posting something weighty about my resolutions, but honestly, I've already checked the important items off my list. I have a few things to get better at, but I have climbed my mountain and staked my flag at the peak, and now I'm just sitting here looking at the sky.

Oh, and the Ohio State cake is thanks to Gabi, who is a rabid fan for some reason. I'm not renouncing my U of Michigan diploma any time soon. After all, it helped get me here.

I live in glorious Akron, Ohio, where I write poems, edit the Akron Series in Poetry, and teach literature and creative writing. I am the author of five full-length collections of poems, including A Sunny Place with Adequate Water, Small Enterprise, and the collaborative poetry collection The Czar, with Jay Robinson (all from Black Lawrence Press). I've received an NEA fellowship in poetry, and several individual excellence awards from the Ohio Arts Council. In 2019 my first collection of prose poems, Partial Genius, is due to drop from BLP.
In my spare time, I like to photograph garbage.